On the heels of Pope Francis' controversial statement describing the Catholic church as "obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception", comes the third firing of a Catholic schoolteacher in the last eight months. For Catholic dioceses in the US, it seems to be institutional protocol to offer condolences or congratulations to LGBT personnel in the form of a pink slip.

The first was Carla Hale, a nineteen-year veteran of Columbus, Ohio's Bishop Watterson high school. Next was Ken Bencomo, a seventeen-year veteran of St. Lucy's in Los Angeles, California. And now, Tippi McCullough of Little Rock, Arkansas, whose termination last week takes the prize for the least time wasted capsizing someone's life: 40 minutes.

Forty minutes after Tippi McCullough wed her partner in New Mexico, she received a phone call from Mount St. Mary's principal, Diane Wolfe, informing her of her breach of contract by violating the morality clause. McCullough was then presented with two options: resign and receive a "glowing recommendation" or be fired.

Management responsible for McCullough's forced resignation has responded to the public outrage in similar fashion as their predecessors in the Hale and Bencomo cases – refusing to discuss McCullough's resignation publicly. Mount St. Mary's CEO, Karen Flake, issued a vague statement "for public consideration" on 21 October. The statement, which never explicitly mentions McCullough by name, states that the mission of Mount St. Mary's is to "adhere to the teachings of the Catholic church" even if the "church's teachings may be difficult, challenging and/or unpopular".

Hale, Bencomo and McCullough have three things in common, two of which become immediately clear after reviewing the facts. All three educators served in their institutions for over 15 years and all three were sacked in a matter of days (or minutes) after a major life event – for Hale a funeral, Bencomo a wedding. The third commonality that cannot be immediately surmised but is quickly learnt through a Google search, is that all three were beloved by their students, colleagues and communities. Petitions hosted on change.org seeking the reinstatements of Hale and Bencomo received over 130,000 and 92,000 signatures, respectively. Their cases gained national and international attention, as McCullough's is now – a petition has recently been established on McCullough's behalf.

McCullough's ability to educate was never the question. Even as she was being fired, the Principal remarked that she was a "great teacher". Yet, we have no recourse to protect these great teachers who, by all accounts, excel at work and are then penalized for living life honestly off the clock.

Passage of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would in theory make it illegal to fire an individual based on sexual orientation. Legislation addressing the issue of LGBT discrimination in housing and employment has been proposed since 1974, to no success. President Obama's support of ENDA improves the chance of passage in the immediate future. Yet, ENDA would not keep the Hales, Bencomos and McCulloughs from termination. Like similar bills being proposed around the country in state legislatures, these non-discrimination bills include a religious exemption, making the kiss of death "morality clause" legal.

Parents send their children to Catholic schools for a myriad of reasons. Not all students are Catholic, just as many teachers who teach in these schools are not Catholic. What is morally reprehensible is not the employ of LGBT personnel, but rather the swift invalidation of fifteen-plus years of service at the whim of public labeling.

The fact that an abstractly phrased "morality clause" can stand as a legitimate cause for the firing of three long-time employees is indefensible. However, what is more problematic is the license afforded by the abstraction to sack any employee for anything perceptibly immoral.

There are plenty of things the Church says a follower must adhere to which are repeatedly dismissed and visible in Catholic schools – premarital sex, contraception, divorce, taking the Lord's name in vain, failure to fast before mass, et al. From the supposedly grievous to benign or venial sins, these "don'ts" seem to be masterfully ignored, a consideration that is definitively not extended to the LGBT community; of whom many are also Catholics, whose secured employment is necessitated by the modern demands of society.

We can see McCullough's firing as another disappointing tick in the name of LGBT discrimination or we can see it as the third and final strike. It is unacceptable to dismiss McCullough as one more LGBT person who should have "known better" before taking a job in a Catholic school. The quick succession of LGBT terminations from Catholic schools highlights the privileging of a flimsy argument cloaked in freedom of religion over the dignity and worth of a human being. By upholding one debatable aspect of Catholic doctrine, how many others are ignored?

There was much about my Catholic school experience that makes me grateful, particularly when it came to academic preparedness for college. However, preparedness of the world outside, the one filled with diversity of people and experience, I was completely naïve; even naïve to who I was. Retrospectively, I imagine I could have been much happier had acceptance been foregrounded over all of the don'ts, sins and thou shall nots. From my own experience, I seem to remember lying as a prominent "don't". What about lying to yourself and the world about who you are? About who you love?

It's time to tell the Catholic church that they cannot pray – or pay – away the gay.